Low Ratings

[georgeshahat]

I think that in order to protect the instructors from low ratings without any justification, udemy should not accept 1 or 2 stars rating unless the student provides justification about his/her rating.

This will help the instructors know their mistakes and correct them according to the students feedback.

[AhmedMagdyMohamed]

@FrankKane  I am sorry I donot mean that but Lawrence accused me and said alot against me in an archived thread I am saying " old man " because I donot know what to call him after all his accusations to me . I was just asking for something!!!

[GuilhermeMP]

Here in Brazil too

[RobertBrown028]

Three major difficulties make this an ineffective exchange. One is there isn't a common set of facts, partly due to some instructors defining that reviews are for their benefit. Without a common understanding of review systems, how they are created and how they are evaluated, common understanding is not going to happen, nor the acceptance of opposing viewpoints.

The second problem is that for some, this is an emotional issue. Logical responses only incite more intense emotions; which is happening here. 

The third is the different desired outcome. Some want a system that eliminates valid and invalid low ratings to benefit instructors while others support a system that maximizes student input. This difference in goals is the natural result of defining the issue differently. N'er the twain shall meet. 

Perhaps a fruitful discussion would be how to productively handle the sting of a low review. Not looking at them until a course is not performing well seems like a good idea. I've learned to do that with my books.

But I do want to acknowledge the pain some of my fellow instructors are feeling. I go through periods when I think about returning to book writing sooner rather than later to avoid some of the built-in Udemy frustrations.

[AhmedMagdyMohamed]

Community Champions donot seem they encourage fruitful discussions here.

If they are treating themselves like Udemy's Gods and accusing anybody at anytime, they wont give a chance for a constructive feedback. Admins here are serving them too which makes the situation even worse. If you want respect, you have to show some respect. 

[BilalBen]

Absolutely true 

[RaquelCoelho]

Hum, this makes sense, for multiple reasons:

1. Participants are encouraged to reflect on their experience, instead of just suddenly giving a certain rating.

2. It discourages mean instructors who have competing topics from manipulating ratings. Though, I would imagine this doesn't happen as it would be super obvious!!

[R-Sila]

fair enough, agree.

[CarolCharma086]

An excellent idea; it would be interesting to see the reasons, and check how many are able to justify their rating! In 20 years of lecturing, I have found that students are at times impulsive and emotional in regard to rating lecturers and educators. 

[LawrenceMMiller]

@CarolCharma086  No one ever needs to "justify" their ratings. All ratings, whether of courses, lectures, hotels, restaurants, movies, or books, are ALL an emotional response. Every public speaker knows, or should know, that it is not the intellectual content of a presentation, but how the presentation makes the audience feel that is what will be remembered. 

Much of this discussion is aimed at changing the rating system to alter how students rate, to make them more rational, or justify their ratings. Forget it! You can't do it. No one has ever done it. Instead, the instructor should recognize how their presentation makes the student feel and causes them to want to give a good rating. You have to change how you present, not how the student rates. One you have control of, the other you can only complain about. One is useful, the other is useless. 

[DavidFord695]

Hello everyone,

I've been following this thread with great interest and appreciate all the insights shared. I want to bring up an issue that I believe affects the integrity of our rating system: the potential for personal grievances to skew reviews. While most feedback is genuine and constructive, there are instances where individuals from our past, perhaps due to personal disagreements, might use the review system to express their dissatisfaction, affecting our professional reputation and the perceived quality of our courses.

I believe it’s crucial for platforms like UDEMY to have mechanisms that can filter out reviews driven by personal biases unrelated to the course content or delivery. This is not just about protecting instructors but about ensuring that prospective students receive accurate and fair representations of our courses. Transparency about why a course was rated poorly can often clarify whether the feedback is content-related or personally motivated.

Thank you for considering this perspective. I'm looking forward to seeing how we can work together to enhance the reliability of your review system.

[DamianMcKinnon]

I think any decent human being would agree with you and this topic comes up again and again, yet Udemy have yet to participate in this discussion.

I posted that I had submitted a report to Trust And Safety about a deliberately defamatory review and the reviewer actually purchased and down-voted another of my courses based on the first course feedback. They even directed attention to the first course in their comments and never once commented on the second course. And of course trust and safety did nothing. Never responded to my followups. And none of the admins in this group responded to my post or gave me options of how to pursue it. They know that if they wait long enough you will go away. And like this recurring topic they ignore it until things once again die down and you accept that they have no intention of acting or even discussing the subject at hand.

The fact that they call themselves trust and safety and then deliberately breach it tells you all you need to know about this topic.

And at the end of the day I believe it's simply a matter of effort versus reward for Udemy.  And clearly it's not effort they are willing to make.

[MinervaSingh66]

I agree.